


The Disappearance of Iwamine Shuu

by Nhitori



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-06 10:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5413364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So tell me, Hiyoko.  Who is the Hawk Party agent?"<br/>"Professor Nanaki!"<br/>"Eh?"</p><p> </p><p>"Sorry, I... Guess this went over your head.  Maybe it would be best to leave it at that.  Pretend you never saw me today.  Adieu!"</p><p>-<br/>Yuuya returns to St Pigeonations after spending years on the run from Hawk Party agents, just after they've stopped chasing him for... Some reason. Things are certainly... Different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Two LLSIF Whales Help Yuuya Discover A Crime and How They Did It Will Blow Your Tits Right Off

Yuuya Sakazaki knew two things to be absolutely true.

The first thing was that Hiyoko Tosaka was dead. There was present the slight chance of her survival in the moment, which had given him the leave on his conscience to go through with his statement. That slight chance consisted of her both having gone unnoticed by the hawk party agents who were trailing Yuuya, and finding another boyfriend directly afterwards. Why it was so important that the modern-day cavewoman extraordinaire had a relationship with one of the St. Pigeonation’s boys was a mystery, but the file talking about the subject was proof at least of its reality. It made him feel guilty, when he’d dug up that info; she’d already become involved with him at that point, and given the nature of his work, he would probably not be seen as a suitable partner by the ever-watching Hawk Party…

Ah, but when it came down to it, he really had needed to leave her behind and hope for the best. It was a weight that tugged at his heart for years to come, but he couldn’t allow himself to be bogged down by thoughts of the past and what could have been. He never had before, and he couldn’t begin now. Besides… the reason he had to leave her was the same reason it didn’t hurt him so much. He’d misjudged her, and to make such a mistake as believing her to be much more astute than she was, he was forced to wonder if he even knew a thing about her in the first place.

That was the second thing that was true. Hiyoko Tosaka had, while she lived, believed with all her heart that Kazuaki Nanaki was the Hawk Party agent stationed at the school. She was entirely wrong, of course. The agent was clearly Shuu Iwamine, and one probably could have surmised that even only from the fact that Yuuya, in his efforts of investigation, had joined the infirmary staff. Now, if he’d been on the mathletes team perhaps, or even went to math at all, it would be another thing, but he certainly didn’t consider his brief stint in the astronomy club to be enough to link him with the regularly unconscious math teacher. Despite being the advisor, he rarely even showed up.

However… Hiyoko’s stupendous idiocy did serve one peculiar purpose, eventually. When the chase became somewhat less heated and Yuuya was capable of spending more than one night in the same place without a deep fear of being discovered by the agents which were trailing him, he took the opportunity to do some research. His curiosity had been piqued. Kazuaki Nanaki was the absolute last person he would ever expect to draw suspicion, be suspicious, or have done anything wrong. Though he rarely even spoke to him, the few times he did made him out to be the most harmless person in the entire school. For Hiyoko to expect Hawk Party affiliations of somebody who was so consistently smiling, drowsy, and altogether easy-going…

Maybe that was it. Maybe it was because Yuuya and Professor Nanaki were so similar, and she could liken them to two sides of the same coin. Yuuya, the easygoing and cheerful student who was actually a secret agent for the Dove Party… and Nanaki, the easygoing and cheerful teacher who was actually a secret agent for the Hawk Party? Yuuya had the capability to brush it off as this reasoning, as it made enough sense, however, he wouldn’t. A secret agent’s investigation is never truly done at the first possible conclusion. He highly doubted that Professor Nanaki was actually an agent, but there was always the lurking potential of other secrets.

Luckily, Yuuya had all sorts of search tools at his disposal, even now. The agents had never gotten ahold of his laptop in any way, so he’d brought that with him, knowing they couldn’t track it. Good thing, as it still had all of the software he’d used before. A lot of it was very simple, and cheap, but he was glad to have it so readily available to him nonetheless. It was the first night that he felt safe trying to do anything but grab a few hours of sleep before moving on that he started his investigation.

That first night was incredibly boring. A simple search of Kazuaki Nanaki, however, he had to sift through the results. He had a tool that would keep certain results from appearing in future searches of the same thing, so as not to clutter the page with those things which turned out absolutely useless… however, he had to first filter them manually, and the top results were ever individual piece of his teaching webpage. The news section of search was occasionally a better help, but he couldn’t find anything mentioning Kazuaki Nanaki further back than a few years, and they were all about nothing but his mathematical ability. Those could be ignored in the future.

And in that future, he found nothing else useful for quite a while. It was difficult to filter through all of the results that came up when searching the name of a famed mathematician, and teacher at a prestigious school. None of the webpages he found seemed useful at first, but there was one. A single diamond in the rough that would yield for him the lead he needed to move forward with his hobby-like investigation into the true character of Kazuaki Nanaki.

A university record. It hadn’t actually been released to the public, because that would be a disgusting violation of privacy, but somebody seemed to have transcribed a portion of it and posted it on some forum asking for advice. Kazuaki Nanaki was in no way the topic, but his name appeared in the transcription just once.

[ December 11th: Kazuaki Nanaki: Changed majors from English to Math.]

Despite being something incredibly mundane, this statement stood out to Yuuya. Everything else about Kazuaki Nanaki had been talking about math, after all. He never could have guessed that Nanaki had once been majoring in an entirely different subject, and the idea of it seemed… wrong. Perhaps this would be a red herring in the end, but he felt as if he needed to pay a visit to the university in question.

Upon arriving, he asked if there was any way to learn anything about the comings and goings of the now-alumni when they had been in the school. Despite his odd request, he did get answers; the on-campus cafeteria required students and any outside guests they brought along with them to sign in, and the archives of that were filed away, but released to the public after five years in case the alumni in question wished to reminisce or settle a dispute on who they’d eaten lunch with on a certain day. It seemed a bit petty and more than a bit strange, but it was certainly convenient for Yuuya.

He located the files for the correct time period, then looked them over for Kazuaki Nanaki. It seemed that, prior to the change in his major, he didn’t come to the cafeteria very often. When he did, he was consistently signing a guest in along with himself. After the date of the major change, he started coming alone- no, that wasn’t quite right. The first instance of him entering the cafeteria alone was actually the evening of December ninth. Yuuya took note of the guest’s name. Hitori Uzune.

Where had he heard that name before?

He was sure that he had-

Stumbling backwards, he very nearly dropped the file he was holding. Almost. He had to keep composed though, people were watching. Had to be sexy and suave in front of the ladies~! And also, not be suspicious. Don’t be suspicious. He sighed and put the file away, putting his smile back on to try and wave away any suspicions people might have after his strange behavior. Hiding the shock that he was in.

He’d seen the name Hitori Uzune in the school’s own records. No, not this school. St Pigeonation’s. The records he wasn’t supposed to be looking at, the ones belonging to Iwamine Shuu. The records which spoke of a student who could potentially be used as a biological weapon against… anyone the hawks didn’t like, which was a lot of people. The records which spoke of a fire in the old hall, in which several scientists as well as the student himself had perished. And… Hitori Uzune, a relative of the student who had broken into the building the day of the fire.

If Professor Nanaki had known Hitori prior to going to work at St. Pigeonation’s… why would he go there? Yuuya knew that the deaths in the fire couldn’t be completely covered up. Though the article would, of course, not reveal the reason for the deaths, a newspaper did publish a short obituary listing the people who had died in a tragic accident at a recently-built school that had, prior to the event, been building up quite a good reputation. Kazuaki Nanaki had to have known that was where Hitori died.

Yuuya would have to take this new information he was armed with and put it to its proper use; searching for Hitori Uzune, in a similar way to his search for Kazuaki Nanaki. He was completely prepared to sift through dozens of useless pages of search results as he had with the other, but as it was, there were only a few results for this new name. Two newspaper articles. Five webpages. Of those, one of the articles was the obituary with his name in it, and one of the webpages was a horribly designed memorial to the names in that obituary, probably done as somebody’s graphic design project. Pick a tragic event and create a memorial to those affected, making use of balance, proximity, and alignment? Sounds about right.

Of the remaining five items he had to look through, everything was new information. He decided to go about piecing together the info by combining what he already knew with the new things that he found out, and determining different possible hypotheses as he went along.

He knew already that Kazuaki Nanaki, a brilliant mathematician and teacher at St. Pigeonation’s, knew the late Hitori Uzune, who perished in a fire at St. Pigeonations, the newspaper being released December 10th but the actual incident occurring a few days earlier. The bodies were unable to be retrieved and identified until the 9th, the first day that Kazuaki Nanaki went to the cafeteria alone. In addition, on the 11th, Nanaki changed majors from english to math. One thing about that file just didn’t match up, and that was the fact that the two of them signed into the cafeteria on December 8th, after the fire happened and therefore after Hitori was supposedly dead. This was the real thing that bothered Yuuya; without that discrepancy, he could have made a conclusion with the information from the newspaper article.

Hitori Uzune, local orphan, solves ‘unsolvable problem’ at age twelve, commended by the mathematics community.

If not for the strangeness of the dates, Yuuya could presume that Nanaki’s change of majors had been in memory of his dead friend, and he just happened to be better at it than expected; however, assuming does make an ass out of you and me, so he couldn’t quite make any half-conclusions yet. He opened one of the webpages. It was a chatroom.

birb-fucker: ...a newbie? Has somebody been giving out the link again?  
Anonymous: Ah… I didn’t realize coming here would make me join the chat! I found this when I searched the name Hitori Uzune… I’m doing a research project on the St. Pigeonation’s fire, you see, and that was the name of one of the victims…  
MakiBest: Oh, that was years ago, but… I do remember Kaz mentioning someone by that name. Like I said, years ago. It’d take forever to track it down in the archives.  
Anonymous: Oh, I approve of your username, sir or madam MakiBest. Who’s Kaz?  
MakiBest: Thanks  
Nozocchi: I think I’m the best person to answer that question. Kaz and I started this chatroom together to meet other whales and talk about how Love Live School Idol Festival was completely ruining our lives. His username was Um1pAna. It looked really dumb, but he messed up when typing it and couldn’t change it after.  
MakiBest: My name’s Tsukki. Mayu (Nozocchi) and I are the only ones still active who knew Kaz.  
birb-fucker: Yeah I’m gonna go cause otherwise I’d be like a third wheel.  
Anonymous: I need to know everything you can tell me about Kaz. And what he said about Hitori Uzune.  
Nozocchi: Ehhhh? Anon-san, this isn’t really for a research project at all, is it?  
MakiBest: Yeah that did sound a little creepy.  
Anonymous: You said you knew Kaz. That means he isn’t here anymore. I’m… investigating a man named Kazuaki Nanaki, and his connection to Hitori Uzune. So it seems that Kaz and Kazuaki Nanaki may be one and the same.  
Nozocchi: Ohhh I see. You’re a cop.  
MakiBest: Like Kotori UR #565  
Anonymous: ...Yes.  
Nozocchi: All right. Well, Kaz and I talked over emails for a long time before making this chat. We met on a popular MMORPG, but we were both sort of quitting to focus more on mobile games at the time. When I first started SIF, Nozomi was my favorite from the very start! But, Kaz didn’t have a best girl for a while… He only picked his username just before the chat started. Apparently Umi reminded him of some guy that he liked, and Hanayo reminded him of himself.  
MakiBest: He was really enthusiastic when the white day set came out.  
Nozocchi: Yeah :O he was! He seemed a lot happier for a while, too, after picking his username.  
MakiBest: When he mentioned Hitori, that was because he was saying that he was glad to have the September set idolized (that was KotoUmi) because of Hitori Uzune. Kotori sounded like Hitori, and Uzune started with U, like Umi, and Umi also reminded him of Uzune with her personality. It was pretty gay.  
Nozocchi: So obviously Hitori was this guy that he liked when he decided to be Um1pAna.  
MakiBest: I don’t think it worked out very well.  
Nozocchi: Me neither…  
Anonymous: Why do you say that?  
Nozocchi: Well… the last time Kaz posted anything, I think it was December eighth. Five years ago, maybe? He said something really cryptic.  
MakiBest: I remember it like it was yesterday. “Umi and Hanayo are dead.”  
Nozocchi: At first we thought he was just annoyed over a bad scout or something…  
MakiBest: He changed his SIF profile message to “Rest in Peace, Kazuaki-Kun” and never opened the game again.  
Nozocchi: He never said a word here, or in emails or anything ever again. I think he died.  
Anonymous: Actually, Kazuaki Nanaki is alive and well. It’s Uzune who died. Maybe he just quit SIF?  
MakiBest: That doesn’t sound like something Kaz would do. Mayu?  
Nozocchi: You’re right it doesn’t :(  
Anonymous: Now that I think about it… the Kazuaki Nanaki that I know isn’t much like Hanayo at all, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play a mobile game, but they must be the same person, based on my past research…  
Nozocchi: GASP :O the plot thickens. Identity theft???????????????  
MakiBest: I don’t think there’s any identity theft going on here. But... This is really sus.  
Anonymous: Now that you mention it, actually, that’s kind of possible. Uzune and Nanaki went to a university’s cafeteria together on December 8th even though the fire Uzune supposedly died in was the 6th.  
Nozocchi: omg thats freaky  
MakiBest: I never liked the sound of that Uzune guy…  
Anonymous: It makes some level of sense, anyway. The obituary was put out based on the number of bodies found after the building was safe to investigate, and the number of people known to be there, and the people known to have escaped. As long as there was an extra body at the scene, it could be assumed to belong to Uzune…  
MakiBest: So basically. Hitori Uzune killed Kazuaki Nanaki… then became him? And that’s why we haven’t seen Kaz since? Kaz got murdered?  
Anonymous: I’m not so sure it was murder.  
Nozocchi: That’s right it might not have been! Uzune didn’t KNOW about this chatroom bc he’s not a whale. So… Kaz must have sent that message. Hey, hey, but why?  
MakiBest: Yeah what’s the motive? Also does the Kazuaki you met seem like Umi?  
Anonymous: Well, maybe a little. He is very protective of his students, hesitant about a lot of things… but he smiles a lot. Like always.  
Nozocchi: When Umi Sonoda smiles sweetly…  
MakiBest: You know shit’s going down…  
Anonymous: ...The motive is revenge.  
Nozocchi: Eh??  
Anonymous: Hitori Uzune lost a relative in that fire. So he probably wants revenge for it, but since they thought he was dead… he needed a new identity to do it.  
Nozocchi: So Kaz really is dead???  
Anonymous: Seems to be that way. Sorry.  
Nozocchi: DDDDD:  
MakiBest: I kind of expected as much. Mayu, it’s been five years.  
Anonymous: But then, I could also be completely wrong. Please don’t take any of this with a grain of salt; I’ll do more investigation, then deal with the problem myself. Except you should probably indeed assume that your friend is dead.  
Nozocchi: Okay…. well, good luck Anon-San.  
MakiBest: Hope you get a UR Maki sometime soon ;)

Yuuya closed out the tab, and just stared at the screen for a few moments. Did that seriously just happen? Did a chatroom made for people who spend way too much money on mobile games just help him piece together the mystery that was Professor Nanaki? Well, as much as this conclusion seemed sensible to him, and as completely willing as he was to believe that Nanaki’s cheerfulness covered some burning rage, he couldn’t just go off of this intuition. Not entirely, anyway. He opened up one of the other webpages. It turned out to be an online archive for an old newspaper, which wouldn’t show up in the news section seeing as it was no longer new.

“Extremist group targets orphanage. Only survivors are teens Nageki Fujishiro and Hitori Uzune.”

As much as he would rather not admit it, this only corroborated his previous theory. Of course Uzune would want revenge if it was not only a relative of his who had been killed, but his only remaining family. A little brother… well, as much as he felt like he ought to hate somebody who would kill an innocent for such a purpose, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He really was the same after all, wasn’t he? The things people will do for their family, sometimes…

Maybe, he thought, he was even worse than Uzune. He claimed to have done it for Sakuya, sure, but even as he tried to convince himself of that he knew it was false. That was a portion of it, of course. The brother who was much more precious to him would be the one to grow up in the lap of luxury… and yet, he knew. He’d done it out of spite.

There was one more page, but he didn’t feel the need to check it. Not now, anyway. Not now.

He put the thought of Hitori Uzune out of his mind for a long time, he really did. Three years, until he got a text that he couldn’t say he expected at all.

One: Guess who finally got himself fired? Kazuaki Nanaki. They got sick of him sleeping through curriculum days.  
Yuuya: What why are you texting me  
One: Oh right I didn’t tell you. Because it’s safe to now! The Hawk Party’s not after you anymore.  
Yuuya: But, Iwamine Shuu-  
One: Won’t be giving us any more trouble.  
One: So I’m thinking of retiring from Pigeonations soon… they could use a new janitor  
Yuuya: Are you offering _moi_ the position?  
One: That I am, kid.  
Yuuya: I’d be glad to accept!  
One: Come on back in like… four months? That work for you?  
Yuuya: It certainly does!

Even as he sent that text, one thought was running through his mind. Just as soon as he got back to Hachiman Littledove, he’d go find the fired professor. And he would talk to him.

Just talk.


	2. The Premise Of The Fic Is Revealed And Shit Boy It Is Weird

At first glance, St. Pigeonation’s seemed to be no different from the day Yuuya had left it behind. Students were filing in just as always, though he didn’t recognize any of them. Of course he wouldn’t; even the first years from when he went here would have graduated already. Physically, it seemed just the same. The entrance was unchanged physically, and yet, the school was leagues different from the last time Yuuya had been there.

It was no longer his school, but his place of employment. Two of the most constant adult figures associated with the building were gone, too. Both Professor Nanaki and Doctor Iwamine… it felt strange to think of Nanaki by that name, but he had to get accustomed to ignoring the information he’d found out. If he was to accidentally refer to Nanaki as Uzune, then he’d have quite a bit of explaining to do, and he didn’t really want to go down that road. Not yet, at least. Leone didn’t need to know about his… unrelated investigation.

So he made his way over to meet with his mentor; or at least, he started to, but found himself standing still in one particular hallway. Right outside the door to the infirmary. He’d spent so much time in there, some of which had turned out to be the most terrifying times of his life. He’d honestly thought he might die, that day when the doctor had accused him of rifling around in his desk. He had been, of course, but without Hiyoko’s corroboration of his lie he was certain his remains would now be frozen, or perhaps in somebody’s stomach. Nobody really knew what went into the school’s meatloaf, after all…

That was over now, though. Yet, he had so many memories associated with this infirmary, he couldn’t very well not go in. Besides, he’d probably need to introduce himself to whoever the school nurse was now, he could use that as an excuse. He went to go into the infirmary, but froze when his foot was halfway through the doorway, locking eyes with somebody.

Oh.

Iwamine looked as if he was half asleep, but nonetheless, he stared at Yuuya. No, stared wasn’t quite the right word. That was most definitely a glare. Neither of them said anything, but after a good amount of that unsettling silence, Yuuya turned on his heel and ran out of the room, practically falling over himself and sliding on the tiled floor as he got his way over to One’s room as quickly as he could, throwing open the door and speaking in a loud whisper, “Mr One…! I thought you said that Doctor Iwamine was dead? I just saw him!”

“Sakazaki, I said no such thing,” Leone said simply, shaking his head and closing the door behind his prodigy, “I only said that he wouldn’t be giving us trouble anymore.”

“Well generally, that statement is code for ‘he’s dead and I killed him’, so I’m pretty sure it isn’t out of the ballpark to expect that was what you meant!” Yuuya groaned, leaning back against the wall, “Seeing a person who’s supposedly dead on your first day of work has got to be some sort of bad luck, you know? That was terrifying!”

“Well, even if he were dead, I wouldn’t have been the one to kill him,” Leone said, then shrugged, “In any case, he’s been very cooperative. He called the agents off of you, for one thing. In fact, it seems that the Earthcrawlers are now on the brink of dissolving completely. A mix of too many members turning up dead, and dissent during their meetings, apparently. A good amount of that dissent is being planted by the doctor, you see.”

“But… why?” Yuuya asked, raising an eyebrow, “That really doesn’t sound like him.”

“I guess he must have had a change of heart.”

“...Bullshit,” Yuuya said, shaking his head, then crossed his arms and looked down at the floor, “I’m sorry, but it’s clear that you’re lying to me, Mr. One. I did some investigations of my own when I was on the run, you know. My mind’s been expanded to much wilder potential crimes, that people could commit. I’m going to go on my instinct, and speak to Iwamine.”

“I don’t think that’s a-”

“Good idea? Au contraire, Mr. One, it’s not only a good idea. It’s the best one I’ve had in a long time,” Yuuya chuckled, making finger guns as he left the room then dashed back to the infirmary again.

“Well. You’re back again. Feeling ill, after running off so quickly? You must be horribly out of shape, if that bit of physical activity leaves you desiring a visit to the infirmary…” Iwamine squinted at him over his glasses, now seeming to be completely alert. Was that pill bottle on his desk open before? Upon peeking at it, Yuuya noted that it seemed to be a prescription stimulant.

“No, no, I’m mildly athletic, at least!” He assured the doctor, stepping a bit closer, “I want to speak with you, is the thing! I apologize that I ran away before, I was only frightened because of the rumors, and, well, I had also heard that you’d died. I almost thought I saw a ghost!”

“Well, as you can clearly see, I am alive and well. Given your erratic behavior, however, I’m still not so certain that you are. You were the infirmary aid, a few years ago, until you… mysteriously ran off,” He folded his hands in his lap and shook his head, “How rude. Now you return behaving so feverishly? Tsk…”

“Iwamine Shuu… is standing right here in front of me, but,” Midway through his sentence he threw a punch at Iwamine’s face, slower than his usual speed, enough time that Iwamine ducked to the side and Yuuya’s fist hit the air instead. Oddly enough, he smirked at this, “Just as I thought. I punched with my left hand, towards your right side. If you really were him, well, you couldn’t have avoided that so easily. I suppose I can call you Iwamine Shuu anyhow, a false enough name for a liar like you, but… you’re most certainly not Isa Souma.”  
\-----------------------------------------------

“Disgusting…” Iwamine muttered to himself as he looked through the freezer. Bagged up remains of several students, labeled with the body parts… he’d handled the dead before, of course, but he’d never actually seen anybody brutally mutilated. Only one full-size corpse produced by an incredibly nonviolent death… this was possibly the grossest thing he had seen in his entire life. His first resolution was to find a way to get this particular trait out of the rumor mill; he would most certainly not be dissecting any students…

But first, he needed to discard of the bodybags. No, bodybags was not the right term at all. These were bloody ziploc bags stuffed with body parts, and there was really no way to describe that other than just outright saying that they were ziplocs with the mutilated pieces of dead students made to seem just like leftovers from a meal, but leagues worse. Maybe they were leftovers; he wouldn’t put it past the man. Getting rid of these things… well, he just wouldn’t think about it. His plans always tended to work out better for him when he didn’t actually think about them.

Of course he’d never intended this result; but, that was also a plan that he’d thought about very much. He’d done the impossible before, only because he knew he had to do it. He had no idea how he’d done it, of course, but he had. Because he needed to. This was no different, he supposed. Just another chapter in his life, another way of being that he would have to get used to. He was not the sort of person to change gradually; he only shifted through time, one jarring event at a time, distorting himself as he went.

Was there… anything left?

He felt as if every time he’d changed, he’d lost part of himself. Left something behind. First his happiness, then his compassion, and now… he wasn’t sure if there really was anything left. He was empty now; no, not quite. Not empty, rather, he was that which filled emptiness. His body was just a shell which could be molded to whatever purpose was necessary, and he was an emotionless puppeteer. Nothing but the force which moved the shell it inhabited, and felt nothing but disgust, despair, loathing. He was the rottenness at the center of a shiny fruit.

It was only a month past when he’d been looking in that freezer, but it was four months ago now.

“You… you’re the one who killed him, right?”  
“...Ah… maybe so… you’re awfully smart for a janitor…”  
“Smarts have nothing to do with it. A camera in the infirmary, however, is another story. That sure was a mighty mess you left for me to clean up.”  
“Well, I was expecting you’d report it to the police…”  
“Of course not. The second the Hawk Party found out Iwamine Shuu was dead, I’d be joining him. I had to cover it up.”  
“The… Hawk Party…? You mean the politicians?”  
“Well, the Earthcrawlers to be specific. The ones who take those views a bit too far.”  
“What the hell is an Earthcrawler?”  
“So you… didn’t know, when you killed him?”  
“Oh no, not at all! I just hated him.”  
“Well. In any case, the fact still stands that if he’s found dead, or goes missing, I’ll be blamed.”  
“So you want me to turn myself in? I can do that.”  
“No… The thing is, without Iwamine Shuu, somebody else will end up with as much influence in the Earthcrawlers as he had… It’s better off if they don’t know he’s dead, and yet…”  
“Oh. Well, I can solve that.”  
“How?”  
“I can become Iwamine Shuu.”

The students had hardly even noticed the difference. With all of these drugs at his disposal, he could counter his narcolepsy, as much as he disliked the side effects at times. It wasn’t difficult to behave as dead inside as the doctor had been before his outsides caught up, either. Making his past self in Kazuaki Nanaki drop off the face of the planet wasn’t even difficult; as far as anyone could tell he’d been fired, then become a hermit. He was never directly associated with anyone, so nobody would think to look for him.

It really wasn’t difficult at all. He was beginning to think of identity theft as a particular skill of his.

There were a few issues, of course. Iwamine Shuu was /not/ a nobody, but having spent enough time around him, it was easy to mimic his behavioral patterns. The real difficulty was in learning what he’d need to know about the Hawk Party, and, well… medicine. That was the real kicker.

Luckily, he’d chosen to do the deed over break, and he’d always been an intelligent person. Biology may not have been his strong suit, but with the help of the Dove Party Agent who had led him into doing this, he was able to discreetly learn anything he needed to know. He wouldn’t be making any big discoveries or saving any lives in a medical emergency, but he could certainly do well enough as a school nurse. Besides, he may not have had the technical intelligence, but growing up with eleven other children, one of which had a genetic autoimmune disease… Did give him quite a bit of practical know-how.

Perhaps a part of him had thought this might end up being necessary. Maybe that was why he’d bided his time for so long; he very well could have found a way to kill him just after determining that he was, in fact, Isa Souma, but instead he’d waited. Waited until he knew him better… Waited until he could flawlessly imitate his mannerisms, if necessary. It hadn’t been his intention, to steal another identity. His plan had actually been to kill himself after taking revenge on Doctor Souma. He’d failed at Nageki’s other wish. The wish to come and save him. That, coupled with all the other sins crawling on his back, was enough to make him want to leave this world behind, but…

He couldn’t do that. Not yet. Not right now, not while he was acting for that agent. He could do what Leone wanted of him. Compared to the things he’d done in the past, it was hardly difficult. Speak his mind in a few meetings, until one way or another Iwamine Shuu and the Hawk Party were no longer so strongly affiliated. Until his death wouldn’t be immediately pinned on the Dove Party. It was fine. He was already dead enough, he could trawl his way through a bit more time on this shitty earth.

He actually did find one thing interesting. The Earthcrawler meetings, they were… Ridiculous. Propaganda-filled extremist agenda that was just as bad or even worse than that of exactly the people they stood against. And he was in a position that he could almost agree with them. The group which they hated had taken his siblings from him, but they themselves had stolen Nageki in their fight against them… And had they succeeded in turning Nageki into a biological weapon, that would have been genocide. Even if it wasn’t his only remaining family who they tried to use for it, that would have been enough to turn him off of the idea of working with them…

So he could do this. Really.

And now, there was one new thing of interest.

Yuuya Sakazaki.

-

“You…” Iwamine hissed through clenched teeth, taking a step backwards and leaning against the desk behind him, only to find his hand landing on a stack of papers and slipping, sending him to an elbow, and knocking over the bottle of stimulants as he looked up at the already much taller Sakazaki with clear fear in his eyes.

“That’s right. I know that you’re not Iwamine Shuu. Ah, but don’t worry! It’s not obvious or anything,” Yuuya smirked as he leaned over him, “Except, that you’re an inch shorter than he was. Nothing anyone would usually notice, but… I’m trained to pick up on minute details. Even then, I wouldn’t think anything of it. Your glare is perfectly similar to his… must be uncomfortable, wearing color contacts and glasses at the same time. As far as I can tell, you’ve got his demeanor down. I’m guessing nobody noticed any change at all… so you’re a very good actor. But then, you have had some practice…”

“Practice? Why do you say that… Sakazaki, is it?” His tone was still the same as that of the role he’d taken on. The moment he agreed to do it, he would know no other tone. He knew nothing of himself anymore. Only the lives he had to live. The lives he’d stolen. He was… Iwamine Shuu… and that was all he could be.

“Yes. In any case, well, I clearly know much more about you than you do about me, and it’s only my prior knowledge that even put the thought in my mind that it could be you, in the infirmary,” Yuuya said simply, then reached into the bag he held on his shoulder, “I thought to track you down this afternoon, find out where you were living now since… being fired, but… Nanaki Kazuaki…” He pulled something out of the bag. An absurdly long red scarf, which he wrapped around Iwamine’s neck, 

“Or, should I say, Uzune Hitori?”


	3. I Am A Bad Person And So Can You

“...What exactly, are you saying?” Iwamine questioned, narrowing his eyes at Yuuya and tugging the scarf off his neck, setting it down on the desk. Gently. There was just more proof for Yuuya; doubtless, the real Shuu Iwamine would have dropped it to the floor, and possibly even stepped on it for good measure. He had no idea just how much malevolence had been in either of the murders he was aware of, but assuming revenge really was the motive, a degree of sentimentality could absolutely be expected of him.

“Deny it all you like, but I know the truth. You are Hitori Uzune,” He smirked a bit, tilting his head, “You’re very good at this whole identity theft thing, you know. Leone didn’t even tell me you were somebody else, he just assumed I’d fall for it just as easily as anyone else. Maybe, with him retiring, he wanted to minimize the number of people here who knew the truth and could potentially squeal… but he didn’t really count on my deduction skills.”

“You’re bluffing. Maybe you could have figured out that I was Kazuaki Nanaki, before becoming Shuu Iwamine, but that’s it,” He shook his head, still trying to defend himself.

“Listen here, Uzune. You’re trying to cover it up because Leone endorsed you becoming Dr. Iwamine, right? But… nobody knew about the last time. I do, though. You did a very good job of being unsuspicious, really, and if I didn’t know your background in identity theft I never would have guessed it was you here now, either. And, if I didn’t know a few other things about you,” He stepped away, giving the man some space, “Like, the fact that you wanted revenge on somebody at St. Pigeonation’s. The only person still employed who was involved in that facility fire… Would be Isa Souma. Also known as Doctor Iwamine.”

“...So what are you going to do? Turn me in? That wouldn’t work out well for you, anymore. Was that your plan? Track down Kazuaki Nanaki, and blackmail me with the information that I wasn’t who I said I was?” He questioned, “But now, Mr. One has me working for you lot… and the matter still stands that the death of Shuu Iwamine would be considered an act of war on the part of the two of you. It’s security, of a sort.”

“Pardon me, Uzune, but you really don’t seem like the type to want that security,” Yuuya spoke, words as soft as his smile, “You’re really quite a sad person, even for all that smiling you did under that name… Professor Nanaki, our own resident beam of sunshine. I can tell, after all,” His smile suddenly dropped into an entirely blank look, his words following similarly suit, “We’re the same.” 

“Sakazaki…” He trailed off, turning away and shaking his head, “You’re wrong. I’m only a very good actor. I needed to seem harmless, if I wanted to get close to Isa Souma. This security, I appreciate it very much.”

“I was never going to blackmail you, I just wanted to talk,” He continued, ignoring those words, “There’s a lot that I found out about you. After my curiosity was piqued, I couldn’t help but investigate. It was very difficult at first, but what sort of an agent would I be if I couldn’t do this much? Once I found out that you existed, Uzune, I was able to learn a lot about you. Even an essay from a standardized test… you were told to write about the best gift you ever received,” He picked the scarf up from the desk again, “You know, Uzune, I went to Heartful House. That’s where I found this scarf. It’s the same one you wrote about, isn’t it? The one that Nageki Fujishiro made for you.”

Uzune stared at him now. Yes, Uzune, for he no longer truly appeared to be Dr. Iwamine. He had all the facial features, hair, clothing, but something in his expression betrayed him as somebody else entirely. He just looked for a long time before reaching a hand out, grabbing onto the scarf and pulling it to himself, letting it hang in his hand for a few moments before clutching it to his chest, squeezing his eyes shut and looking down at the ground. Yuuya didn’t say a word, or move at all. He wanted to allow Uzune to process this information and these emotions all on his own.

“Nageki…” He muttered as he kept the scarf close to his chest, knuckles turning white with how hard he was holding onto the article. He shook his head slowly, then pulled the scarf up further, hiding his face in it. Yuuya could tell that he was crying, despite not being able to see his eyes. He only continued to stand there for a while, and Uzune sat down in the desk chair, laying the scarf across his lap, then looking up at Yuuya. He blinked a few times, then pulled out the colored contact lenses, which had become just a bit too uncomfortable in his puffy eyes. He knew Yuuya had locked the door, so he wasn’t afraid of being caught, “Sakazaki… Why?”

“Why am I doing this? Curiosity, I suppose. Why wouldn’t I blackmail you? I already told you, it’s because we’re the same, you and I. It’s easy, to fake it. To pretend like you aren’t hurting, if there’s a reason to do so, it really isn’t technically difficult. I’m willing to tell you a secret about myself, if it will make you trust me. After all… I do know your secret. It’s only fair,” Without waiting for a response, Yuuya climbed up on the desk and disabled One’s camera, hidden in the air conditioning vent.

“I don’t need to know your secret…” Uzune mumbled, trembling now as he held onto the scarf as if his life depended on it, hair falling in his face. It was greasy, and disgusting, but he had to keep a level of accuracy in his portrayal of Iwamine Shuu, and this was a consistent fact.

“Yes, you do. It’s the only way you’ll ever talk to me,” He said simply, climbing down and kneeling in front of Uzune so they were closer to eye level, “I am a murderer. I killed an infant, many years ago,” His voice was steady, which came as a suprise even to himself, “Years ago, doctors discovered a type of twin called a semi-identical twin. That’s when one egg divides in two, then is fertilized separately. Now, imagine if you will, a surprising circumstance in which somebody whose egg has divided then has intercourse with two different people in a brief period of time. In that case, it would actually be possible for a single person to carry the children of two different people at once… an impossibly odd circumstance, but possible. Not very plausible, but it happened. Just this once.”

“And what does that have to do with you killing somebody?” Uzune questioned.

“That woman who carried children of different heritage, she was my mother. One of the fathers… did not much like this idea. Apparently, I would be entirely disowned if mother didn’t kill the other child born of my father… but she couldn’t do it. So she told me to,” He shook his head, hesitating and swallowing the saliva in his mouth as he looked away, “I couldn’t either. I hated that man, her other partner. After all… he had killed my father. So, I didn’t kill my father’s child. I killed his child instead… and nobody ever knew the difference.”

“You…” Uzune started, but couldn’t really think of anything to say in response to that.

“Heh… well, I said we were the same, but that was a lie. You killed Isa Souma, who’s cheated death for a long time anyway… and who really wasn’t doing anybody any good, but I killed an innocent child. Somebody who easily could have grown up to do great things, greater things than I ever could…” He hesitated, “Sometimes I wonder if I had been smarter, if I would have realized that if I killed myself instead of choosing between the children, both of them would have been raised well… so you see, I’m even worse than you. Now can you trust me?”

“Why are you so intent on wanting me to trust you?” He questioned, then shook his head, “Maybe I do, but I don’t understand why you’d care if I trusted you, because if you know about my past, you know that you can’t possibly trust me. And you know that Isa Souma isn’t the only person that I killed, either.”

“Technically, you did not kill Kazuaki Nanaki. Now, I don’t know the details, but I do know that in a chatroom based on a mobile game and in the game itself, he left messages regarding his death. He knew he was going to die…”

“He didn’t leave a message in the game. I did,” He frowned, clenching his fist and turning to stare at the wall, “Rest in peace, Kazuaki-kun… that game was always very important to him. I figured it would be the best place, to leave a memorial of sorts, without giving anything away…” He then shrugged, halfheartedly, “I don’t know anything about any chatroom, though.”

“The message he left in the chatroom… was ‘Umi and Hanayo are dead’,” He explained softly, “And apparently, he’d associated himself with Koizumi in the past, therefore… he knew he was going to die. I wouldn’t quite call that murder.”

“.../technically/ I did not kill Kazuaki Nanaki, but who am I trying to kid?” Uzune covered his face with his hands, taking a few deep breaths, “Umi and Hanayo are dead… he expected to die, but he expected to die with me. I told him that we were going to kill ourselves together, but then… I didn’t do it. I lied to him.”

“You’re holding back,” Yuuya said softly, almost reaching out to touch his shoulder but deciding against it, “You’re still trying to act like Iwamine. That’s a good skill, but not when you’re talking to me. Here, you can be Hitori Uzune. With me, you can be… well, cliche as it may sound, yourself.”

“I don’t know who that is anymore, Sakazaki…” He whispered, wrapping his arms around himself, “Who is Hitori Uzune anyway?”

“Just tell me what you’re feeling. You keep cutting yourself off before you finish your thoughts, you know. I can tell. Just say everything. It’s /ok/ to have emotions, just for today.”

“...You’re certainly perceptive…” He muttered, then sighed, and his voice when he continued sounded ragged and broken, “When I told Kazuaki that we were going to kill ourselves, to leave this awful world behind… I wasn’t lying, not at first. It was only when we were about to take the pills that I remembered something. Something I had to do… something Nageki had asked me to do. I couldn’t die yet, I had to take revenge on Isa Souma…” He pushed back his bangs, cringing at the feeling of less-cared-for hair than he had ever been used to, “I abandoned Kazuaki. I left him to die… alone. That’s what I did. That’s the guilt I carry now. Nageki’s death… I’ve avenged him now. I atoned for sending him to that fate, but… there’s nothing I can do to move on from killing Kazuaki.”

“Well, there may be no way to atone for that, but you can still move on,” Yuuya offered him a soft smile, holding out his hand, “The burden of remorse, of guilt, it’s a heavy one. You’ll have to carry it your whole life… but that doesn’t mean you really need to be miserable the whole time. Not every smile I give is a fake one, after all… You and I, our sins will follow us through our lives, and straight into Hell too, but. I don’t think that means you need to feel them all the time.”

Uzune hesitated, then took Yuuya’s hand, not making eye contact, “We really are very similar, aren’t we? Well, I suppose, if you’re capable of happiness on some level… then why shouldn’t I be? I just… I’m not sure how.”

“That’s okay, Uzune,” Yuuya said simply, his smile growing a bit more as he put his other hand over the one he was holding, “I’ll teach you. The world’s a beautiful thing, you know. Even villains are allowed to appreciate that. I should know.”


	4. Doctors Hate Him!  Try This Simple Trick To Tell Lies With Ease!

It was only after Yuuya left the infirmary, after making certain that Uzune’s eyes had been sufficiently covered by contacts and make to look violet again, as that was inexplicably Iwamine’s natural eye color, and additionally ensuring that he was just as composed and behaving like the doctor, that he realized just how much catching up he probably had to do. It had been a very long time, after all, since he’d last been anywhere near St. Pigeonation’s, or even Hachiman Littledove at all.

One would probably have the answers, right? He was mildly reluctant to speak to him with the current disconnect in their knowledge, however. Leone would most likely wonder how easily Yuuya spotted that something was wrong, given that even longstanding members of the hawk party had accepted this stand-in for Iwamine as the genuine article. It really was a convincing guise, and he couldn’t say that he wanted to reveal to anybody that the current doctor had actually stolen one identity prior, thus making this a skill of his. One successful theft could be brushed off as a fluke, given that he’d taken the identity of such a massive nobody, but Shuu Iwamine was an entirely different story.

Something about it made Yuuya feel almost proud of him. It was a twisted pride of course, and he wasn’t going to pretend that it hadn’t been wrong of him to murder Kazuaki Nanaki (though he certainly couldn’t say it was wrong to kill Isa Souma) but it was an interesting feeling. He was almost glad, that the bubbly and drowsy teacher he’d been slightly acquainted with was actually standing up for himself against somebody that even Yuuya could hardly stand to oppose despite it being his literal job.

Or at least, it was his literal job in the past, but that had changed. With the doctor not himself anymore, and on their side, the school hardly needed an agent’s presence. Being S-Class, One would probably be reassigned somewhere more fitting of his abilities, and Yuuya would get to be the janitor for his old high school while keeping an eye on what happened. The major hawk presence was gone now, but that didn’t mean that there couldn’t be anybody else aligned with that party, and his capabilities were of a level that he could certainly be assigned to look out for the well-being of a school that had once been under the great shadow of earthcrawlers.

His literal job was being a janitor. Continuing his duties as an agent was just an extra perk, if he could call it that. Despite his qualms about how suspicious it may be that he’d known right away that it couldn’t really be Isa Souma in the infirmary, he steeled himself with a few convenient lies to throw if necessary and walked into the oversized maintenance closet, which was already packed with a few moving boxes. One wouldn’t try to move any of the furniture, of course, but he was taking his personal belongings like clothes and those strange posters which covered up cracks in the walls. Several of which may or may not have been Yuuya’s fault… he’d have to get his own things to hang over them. Preferably some nice art, or photographs of flowers, rather than those conspiracy posters that were probably just found lying on the ground somewhere. It suited One to hang them, but Yuuya would most certainly _not_ have images of cartoon birds being abducted by aliens in his living space.

“So you’re back,” One sighed gruffly, pushing his hair back and leaning on the desk which would soon belong to his prodigy, “What, exactly, was that about? Mind expanded to crimes…?”

“Well you see, I just so happened to spend my years on the run sharpening my senses and my abilities as an agent! It would be sensible and commonplace to dismiss that Doctor Iwamine as being Isa Souma, and I must admit that he is a very good actor, but the simple fact is that I stopped by the infirmary, and he didn’t immediately try to end my life! The real Isa Souma, even if he had a miraculous change of heart, would most certainly still hold some level of a personal grudge against me! And yet, he only acted as he would have back when I knew him. As I said, very good actor, but just not quite right!” Yuuya explained in half-truths that were acceptable, “I read up on many cases, you see, and quite a few of them involved identity theft!”

“I see… I guess I underestimated you, kid. I sort of thought you’d spend your time on the run doing something silly with your time, but I’m very proud of you for continuing to find ways to work even when it was unnecessary!” One smiled, patting him on the back, “So, I have to catch a flight out of here in a few hours, hence why I’m mostly packed up, but I still have a little while to talk if there’s anything you want to know.”

“I…” He frowned slightly. His entire purpose in coming back here so quickly was to ask a certain question, of course, but now that he was faced with it he wasn’t so sure that he even wanted to know the answer, though he threw a grin back on and spoke brightly, “Well, I must say that I’m very curious about what I missed in my absence! I… am aware that Hiyoko Tosaka must have been killed by Hawk Party agents after I left her behind, but would you mind telling my what became of my other friends? And… of my brother?”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that question, but who am I to deny you an answer?” One groaned, sitting down on the couch slowly, “Naoki Nitori is doing all right. Going to a college abroad, actually. Asked me for a letter of recommendation, since he knew that you and I got along, and he always thought you were a pretty cool guy. I did ask him why he wanted to go to college in another country. Said he just wanted to get out of here, that there were more bad things here than good things, and he was gonna run away with some friend of his. Tatsuya isn’t doing so well… he’s dead. I don’t know the details, but he is. Rin Kamiya turned out to have some pretty heavy Hawk sympathies, but with no proof of actual connection to them the higher-ups let him go. Don’t know where he ended up. Ryouta Kawara… well…”

“You already told me one of my friends died. So that’s a body count of two,” Yuuya sat down next to him, staring at the floor with a vacant smile, “But what could I expect? Go on, don’t hesitate to tell me what happened to everyone…”

“Well, that body count is actually three. Ryouta was wracked with grief after the death of both his mother and his best friend, and committed suicide. Your brother’s back in France, preparing to take over Le Bel affairs. All in all, I guess that the only person you even know here anymore is… Him,” One frowned, referring of course to ‘Kazuaki Nanaki’, as he was now ‘Doctor Iwamine’, “You were in a club he advised once, weren’t you? Investigating the strange activities of the members?”

“That’s right! But… that is about the extent of what I knew about him, so I can’t exactly say that he’s a familiar… face,” He chuckled slightly with that reference, thinking back to one of the only existing photographs of Hitori Uzune online. He looked nothing like Kazuaki Nanaki, nor did he look anything like Shuu Iwamine back then. That image was burned into Yuuya’s mind; he was probably the only living person to ever even think about the face of Hitori Uzune, now. Everybody that had known Uzune was now dead, especially with the death of Isa Souma.

Well, perhaps there were a few grocery store workers who might have recognized him in his hometown, but Yuuya doubted that Hitori would ever want to go back there at all, and he wasn’t too keen on it himself. Heartful House was foreclosed on after every one of its residents was announced to be dead, and what with the fact that several young children had been murdered within its wall, it hadn’t made any progress on being sold to the point that they took down the sign and declared the house abandoned. As a building that was a place of public service, and with interesting architecture to boot, they wouldn’t tear it down; that was how Yuuya was able to go back there and find that scarf.

While in the area, he had stopped to buy food, and discovered that the locals weren’t particularly friendly folks. Most of the people he tried to chat up wouldn’t say a word to him, though the one person who did humor him explained it. The terrorist attack on Heartful House had shaken the entire town to its core, and hearing that Hitori Uzune (who had always been a well-liked and pleasant youth) as well as Nageki Fujishiro (who nobody knew, but felt for, knowing of his illnesses through the commonality of Hitori’s presence at the pharmacy) died in a fire that could be linked to another, different extremist organization not long after… did not help the collective mood of the population.

It was a gloomy town that Yuuya had no intention of ever revisiting. The person who had come from that town, Hitori Uzune, was a different matter. Yuuya had every intention of revisiting him on several occasions, especially given the fact that as soon as One caught that plane, he would be the only remaining link at this school to Yuuya’s time as a student. He had to admit that he very rarely went to any of his classes, so none of the teachers really stuck in his mind… excluding this one.

“I’m… very sorry, that happened to Kawara. It’s completely my fault, given that I’m the one who took Hiyoko from him… but at the very least, I’m glad that my brother is doing okay…” Yuuya sighed, coming back from being lost in thought for a while there, “Many of the things you told me are a shame, but I suppose that’s what happens if you disappear for years on end! I can’t allow myself to be too shaken up, it only makes sense that certain things would end up happening while I was gone, after all.”

“That’s the spirit! The time you had to spend on the run was quite the setback, but we just might make an S-class agent out of you yet!” One grinned, patting Yuuya’s back again, then standing up, “As much as I hate to leave so soon after our reunion, I’m going to have to split if I want to catch that plane with all these boxes of mine. The higher-ups’ll have me on a platter if I’m late to receive my next assignment…” He groaned, but then offered Yuuya one more reassuring smile, “Good work, Agent. Sorry for taking your childhood from you… enjoy yourself a bit now, for me, won’tcha?”

“Yes sir,” Yuuya nodded in response, that reassuring smile helping his own to be less faked as it softened, and he relaxed onto the couch a bit more. He’d given so many mission reports, sitting on this couch, and now it was going to be his own. This school, it was as if he was seeing it through entirely new eyes now. Adult eyes, shattering the ideas he’d had about his life’s direction when he was younger and looking at everything from an all-new perspective… yet, it was certainly not a bad thing.

He watched One leave, cardboard boxes tucked with ease beneath his arms. He did not have very many worldly belongings, but that was the convenience necessary when one was an agent, particularly of his class. You never know when you might be restationed and need to pack up everything and leave right then, immediately.

Once his mentor had left the room, Yuuya pulled out his bag; he had traveled light while on the run, but of course kept hold of the important things. Some of his stuff was still out in his car, but he had brought his laptop in with him. He took it out, along with the powercord, and set it up on the desk where One’s near-identical laptop had once sat. He took a deep breath, then opened his search history, remembering the day it was that he’d put all the pieces together.

Anonymous: Hello? Is MakiBest or Nozocchi here right now?  
Hoshizooma: Who the heck are you and how did you get into our chat?  
Nozocchi: Yeah I’m here! :O is it you?  
Anonymous: It’s me.  
Hoshizooma: What?????????  
Korosho: Mayu do you know this person?  
Nozocchi: Yeah! This is Anon-San!  
Nozocchi: Remember when I told you about Kaz??? Anon-san was investigating his disappearance.  
Korosho: Ahh.  
Nozocchi: So what did you need?  
Anonymous: I wanted to let you know that it’s confirmed.  
Nozocchi: Ah… did you arrest the guy??  
Anonymous: Well, no. I’m probably not going to. I just wanted to let you know.  
Nozocchi has kicked the anonymous user from the chat.

Yuuya figured that was about fair. It only made sense that the late Kazuaki Nanaki’s friends would be filled with rage towards Hitori Uzune, given that he was the one to take him from them, and of course it wouldn’t make sense to them, for him to be allowing such an awful criminal to walk free. He did have his reasons, though he couldn’t exactly tell them that. He couldn’t arrest Shuu Iwamine, ex-Kazuaki Nanaki, ex-Hitori Uzune for identity theft anymore, given that the dove party needed his cooperation, and…

Yuuya honestly didn’t want to arrest him. The crime was long in the past, and if he was to act on it, he’d be a hypocrite unless he arrested himself as well; though that wasn’t the only reason, either. In the infirmary, he’d seen something spectacularly odd, strangely intriguing. He’d seen Hitori Uzune, acting like himself. Not putting on airs to seem harmless, not pretending to be Shuu Iwamine, but Hitori Uzune in the flesh, and that person interested him. A person who would do terrible things, for a noble reason, well… That was certainly somebody worth investigating further, in a much more personal manner.

Ah… but for the moment, Yuuya received a call on his walkie-talkie. Some kid had thrown up in the gym after the teacher, distracted by an athletic bird, ordered them to jog twenty laps instead of two. Unfortunately, the number of students who were out of shape but obedient pretty much guaranteed in a situation like that, that somebody would end up vomiting. He would certainly get used to janitorial duties, though. They really weren’t so bad…

If anything, it was nice to have a degree of normality in his life again.


	5. Local Man Seduces Local Man, What Happens Next Will Surprise You!

“This is where you live? It’s kind of… sad,” Uzune spoke softly as he stepped into the maintenance closet that doubled as an apartment for the janitor of St. Pigeonations, peering over the top of the glasses he wore. They were identical to Isa Souma’s, but for the lenses.

“You’re one to talk, where have you even been living? I know it isn’t Kazuaki Nanaki’s apartment, that’s completely abandoned. I checked,” Yuuya responded, standing up from his desk and closing the door behind Uzune. Once the door was shut, the visitor pulled out his contact lenses, blinking a few times. They truly were a pain to wear all the time… the things that he did for people. Despite being a murderer and an identity thief, Uzune was still sort of a pushover, Yuuya noted. He didn’t really have any reason to help One, but he did anyway.

“I didn’t mean to insult you,” Uzune shook his head, waving his hands in front of himself, then yawning, “I just meant that, it would be nice if you had somewhere better than this to live… you’re a very nice young man and I’d think you deserve better.”

“It’s somewhat offputting, to hear you say these things, so please forgive my hesitation, mon amie!” Yuuya smiled brightly at him, stepping away from the door to return to sitting on the couch, “Besides, somebody has to live here! A nice cozy place like this demands to be filled with at least one body!” He paused as he realized how odd that sounded, “Living bodies, I mean. I don’t believe this room is at all suited to hold any number of corpses.”

“You’re the one who told me I didn’t need to act in front of you,” Uzune frowned, going to stand in front of Yuuya, and adopted a different tone, “Ah… But, if you prefer, Sakazaki, I can certainly keep it up… Were you lying to me, back then? And as for my own living quarters, where would I be living but my own home? What a foolish question...”

“God, no. That’s even more offputting,” Yuuya shook his head, leaning forward with an elbow on his knee and his chin on his fist, “Please, never switch back and forth. All I meant was that… it really is strange, to hear the sort of things you say, coming out of what appears to be Doctor Iwamine’s mouth. At least you take out the contacts, seeing you with brown eyes does help the confusion a bit!” He shrugged, then glanced up at Uzune, “Well, don’t just stand there, you can sit down, stay a while! What’s it like living in Doctor Iwamine’s house?”

“It’s the largest house I’ve ever lived in… what could he have needed all that space for? If Heartful House was that big, we could have taken in twice as many children,” Uzune sighed as he sat down, leaning back on the couch, “It’s not nice at all, living in such a big place all by myself. As much as I may complain about your living here, I would much prefer this place… Well, we could trade, couldn’t we? Since you surely deserve much better, and I-” Uzune was cut off by Yuuya placing a hand over his mouth.

“Don’t say that you deserve worse, Uzune. Putting yourself down solves nothing!” Yuuya shook his head, offering him a smile, “Trust me.”

“Regardless… I can’t help but feel like both of our living spaces at the moment are disappointments,” Uzune sighed, “But, I can’t live anywhere else. Isa Souma lived in that house for the entirety of the time he spent as Shuu Iwamine. Moving suddenly, after the sort of things that I’ve said at Hawk Party meetings… well, that would just raise a few too many red flags.”

“I understand,” Yuuya nodded, then stood back up and clapped his hands together, “But! You’re perfectly welcome to come visit me here whenever you like! I know it might be a bit of a strange place, being in the school and being so, well, run down…” He trailed off, then chuckled, “But nonetheless, it’s a cozy place, and while it sure isn’t the greatest apartment, it’s probably much more comfortable than a big empty house.”

“I think I’d like that,” Uzune nodded, crossing his arms and looking up at the ceiling. It suffered from mild water damage, yes, but most of the school did. It was hard to maintain such a large building, even with the amount of funding they had here.

“In fact, if you’re ever scared to be by yourself in that house-”

“Do you honestly think I could have gotten this far if I was afraid of being alone…?” Uzune muttered, crossing his arms.

“Well, clearly you aren’t actively afraid, but,” Yuuya shrugged a bit, “I _have_ seen your very limited medical records, Uzune. Paranoid Personality Disorder can’t exactly be ignored through willpower…”

“I mean,” Uzune turned his head, frowning.

“Look, I’m not going to judge you for it! I was just going to say that if you ever don’t want to be alone, you could stay the night…” Yuuya shrugged, moving a bit closer, “I’ve already thought up a fitting excuse, too! You stayed late working until you passed out, so the kind janitor who just so happens to live at the school brought you to his couch instead of leaving you asleep at your desk.”

“Sakazaki, are you… Flirting with me?” Uzune asked, raising his eyebrows and frowning slightly.

“Maybe I am…” Yuuya smirked as he reached out and turned Uzune’s head at the chin to look him in the eyes. Uzune’s brown eyes… That only remaining reminder, as far as Yuuya knew, of his first identity. Uzune blushed, but didn’t move away. Well, not at first; unfortunately, before Yuuya could come up with any other witty pick-up lines, Uzune launched backward at the sound of the door opening, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Isa Souma!” An incredibly loud and grating voice burst into the room, and Yuuya sighed as he stood up to distract the unexpected visitor long enough for Uzune to put his contacts back in. He must have forgotten to lock the door… a student could have just walked right in. This visitor was probably worse than a student, however, given the name that they’d used.

“What do you want?” Yuuya questioned, standing right in front of this visitor. He was rather tall, but Yuuya was taller, and though Yuuya wasn’t really all that broad, he was still broader; only to be expected, up against this sticklike figure.

“Well I was going to proclaim my desire for RIGHTEOUS VENGEANCE,” The already loud tone got even louder on those words, just to make sure he was heard, “But now I have greater concerns! Such as, the fact that Isa Souma is so disgusting as to be seducing one of his students! Ugh!”

“Well for one thing, I’m not a student-”

“Aren’t you Yuuya Sakazaki, a second year?” 

“I’m… Yuuya Sakazaki, the twenty-three year old janitor. Do you not understand the passage of time?” Tohri just blinked as Yuuya stared at him quizzically, “I’ll take that as a yes. Besides, if anyone was doing any seducing here, it definitely would be me!” He chuckled a bit, holding a hand to his chest in a sort of proclamation of pride.

“Oh. Well, in that case,” He stepped aside, but it was all right, because Uzune had managed to get the contacts back in already and looked every bit like the person he was supposed to be, “Isa Souma! I have to claim my revenge against you!” He shouted, reaching into his jacket and retrieving what appeared to be a raygun, though Yuuya grabbed it before he got the chance to point it, so he just pointed with his finger instead, “You will rue the many days you crossed me!”

“And… Who are you?” Uzune questioned, tone low and chagrined, “I can’t say I much appreciate you showing up here unnanounced…”

“And I can’t say I much appreciate your continued existence, Isa Souma!” Yuuya couldn’t help but snort at this comment, causing the one who said it to whirl around and glare at him, “First you take my vaporizer gun, and now you dare to laugh at the great Tohri Nishikikouji!? What, pray tell, is so funny…?”

“Your antics?” Yuuya lied.

“Antics!! ANTICS!? My quest for revenge should not be boiled down to mere… Antics! That is not what they are at all! I am one hundred percent serious!” Tohri frowned deeply, then trompsed up to Uzune and grabbed his shoulder, “Do you not remember me? All of the pain you caused me, Isa Souma!? You drove me straight out of Takaba labs!”

“That certainly does sound like something I would do. Working with you seems incredibly unpleasant… However, I can’t say that I have any memory now of having done so, so I imagine that makes taking revenge on me a bit difficult. That’s the thing about revenge, isn’t it? Revenge is just cruelty, if the one being hurt doesn’t understand what he’s done wrong,” He shrugged, pushing his glasses up his nose with his eyes closed before glaring at Tohri, “Besides. I’d say I did you a favor. Many of Takaba’s employees perished in a fire several years ago. Had you continued working there… Ohoho… You may not even be standing here today…”

Tohri’s face twisted up in some sort of strange, Nishikikouji-style grimace as he took a few steps backward, “I have no suitable comeback for that, Isa Souma! But this isn’t over!! If I can’t get my revenge directly, I swear on my own life that I will at the very least outlive you!”

“I’m not sure that-” Yuuya started to comment, but Tohri had already left, slamming the door behind himself. He sighed, remembering to lock the door now before turning to Uzune, who was already taking the contacts back out, “Chilling speech, Doctor. Practically gave me goosebumps! Quite a fright for the strange man there, I imagine. Reminding others of what ifs and their own mortality often has that effect, wouldn’t you say?”

“Mm,” Uzune shrugged, crossing his arms and turning away to stare at the wall, “I did what I had to, I don’t think he would have left otherwise.”

“It was very convincing! So Uzune, did you ever consider going into theater? That was some splendid acting, there,” Yuuya chuckled, walking over to him and slinging an arm around his shoulders, “Very frightening, but splendid nonetheless! You’re very possibly the best stand-in Dr. Iwamine I’ve ever seen!”

“You’ve seen other stand-in Iwamines?”

“Well, no, but if I had I do still think you’d have them all beat,” Yuuya shrugged, “But, that’s just my opinion.”

“Well, thanks for that. Several lives kind of depend on my ability to be convincing… Not everyone would be as willing to let me get off scot-free as you are, or as concerned with needing me as you and Mr. One. I can’t slip up,” He shrugged somewhat, “With that sort of pressure, of course I’m going to do it right…”

“You say that as if you’re worried about your own life… I’d say that’s an improvement!” Yuuya smiled at him, putting a hand against his back gently.

“I’m more worried about you, and Mr. One,” He shrugged, “I mean… if anyone finds out that I’m not really Doctor Iwamine, the next question will be where he is. If the Hawk Party doesn’t have an explanation for themselves, they’re going to blame you two-”

“But you are a little worried about yourself! Which is a good thing!” Yuuya nodded enthusiastically, then kissed Uzune’s cheek quickly.

“Sakazaki…” He muttered, turning away and looking at the floor.

“I’m like… ninety-five percent sure that you like me, Uzune. Who could blame you? It’s hard not to like somebody so sexy and suave,” Yuuya laughed a bit, still trying to lighten the mood. A common pursuit of his, so it seemed.

“It doesn’t matter if I like you or not. I can’t do something like this…” He bit his lip, tensing his shoulders.

“What, is it because I used to be one of your students? We’re both responsible adults now!”

“No, it’s not that… I know that. That’s not the reason for my qualms…” He muttered, holding his hands to his chest and shaking his head, “There was a time, you know, when I’d say that I’m not even able to feel anything for anyone anymore… but that was another lie I’d devise as Mr. Nanaki. Rather, I just don’t think that… I’d deserve that sort of thing, ever again.”

“You and Kazuaki Nanaki…” Yuuya muttered, making the connection, then shaking his head, “Ah, well, if you thought that would frighten me, you’re wrong… I’m not going to assume that simply because you had such an explosive falling-out with one boyfriend, that it would mean bad news for another… And it has been quite a long time. Ten years, perhaps? That’s enough time for anybody to move on from a bad breakup, don’t you think?”

“It wasn’t a breakup. I murdered him…”

“You killed somebody who wanted to die, Uzune. You seem to keep forgetting that bit… If you hadn’t done it, somebody else would have. Probably him. I’m not saying what you did wasn’t wrong, but it happened, it’s in the past. Don’t you think that a good step towards moving forward would be to give those regrets a break? Just… Let’s try it out. One week, then we can either keep dating or go back to being friends. Either will be fine with me, okay? I like you, and I want to help you be happy again. You are every bit deserving… Especially from somebody like me,” Yuuya offered, smiling softly and looking down at Uzune.

“Well, I’d say least of all from somebody like you, but…” He glanced off to the side, “I guess there would be no harm in just… Seeing how it goes.”


End file.
